Fairview, Oregon plane crash | Updates from sheriff's office and fire department

At 1020 around 1020. This morning, we received calls of black smoke coming from the area just behind us. Here we received, started to receive other calls. And what happened was there was a small aircraft that was flying over and it crashed at some point during the crash, it hit a power pole or tower causing it to fall over. And so the power lines fell into a field of some sort and started a brush fire that fire luckily was kind of adjacent to a swampy area. So it didn't really spread the impact of the aircraft. The aircraft crashed into a building of town homes and that structure also caught fire. I don't know the exact, I don't know if that fire is still active. We'll have Gresham chief Lewis that will be able to give you guys a briefing on that. So Gresham fire is the lead agency for the fire, Portland Fire and Rescue also supported them. FAA will be the investigating agency on the airplane crash. And that's really all I know at this point. I don't know, I know that there are injuries. I don't know how many, I don't know how severe and I don't know about fatalities. Do we know how many people are in the plane? We don't, we don't where it took off from. I don't have that information and all that information will come from the FAA. We haven't received that information from the FA so it's a building of town homes. It appears to be in the town hall in the building, multiple town home units in the building that caught fire. So the area was evacuated, the residents and the adjoining structures were asked to evacuate. We have trauma intervention program. Volunteers that are here helping those people navigate through being displaced and I think we're trying to get some emergency services lined up for these people. Do we know how many people may be displaced? You say their home was damaged? I don't have that number. Do you know how many people are without power right now? I don't, I don't know that number. I know that both PGE and Port in General have, I should say I know that Port of General Electric has been notified. I don't know what their status is. So for us, we M CSO is just here really securing the scene. It's not a crime scene. We are here to support fire and FAA we have detectives here ready to help the FAA when they arrive to investigate this crash. My understanding is that there's a somewhat large debris field and so right now we're collecting um pieces, parts of the airplane and all those things will be collected for the FAA to investigate. Where is the airplane, is it in the field or is it in somebody's house here? The airplane landed on or crashed into one of these town home structures? Ok. So the plane debris is in somebody's house, right? Some of it is. Yes, like I said, the plane hit a power pole and so the impact of that appears to have caused some of the plane pieces to come off. So there's like I said, there's really kind of two crash areas, so to speak and debris kind of all around. And I just want to clarify this cluster of towns. Are they connected or is it like individual, they're connected? Yes. Go ahead. And for the people evacuated. Are you guys going to help them find support, find somewhere to go or are they just kind of left to figure it out? Yeah. So the tip volunteers are here. The tip volunteers are very well connected to services. We're also working on getting emergency services out here. Uh I believe uh from either the county or the city. Is fa fa is FAA on its way or is it already on scene? If it's not on it, if it's not here, how long it's gonna take for them to get here? Uh All very good questions. Uh They have not communicated any of those things to us at this point. Uh long shot if you know this or not, do you know if it was it taking off or landing from Fairdale Airport? That also we don't, we don't really know for sure. And, uh, like I said, the, the FAA would have the flight plan and would know exactly what the, uh, intended route of that, uh, aircraft was long. Do you have the tail number on the plane by chance? I don't. So let me, uh, that's really all I have, which I know isn't much, but it's what it is. I will, uh, touch bases with, uh, Chief Lewis and he has indicated that he had come down with you. You guys are on fire and I'm the Groman fire chief. All right. So what's the update on this fire? So, about 1021 this morning, um, had a report of aircraft emergency that was originally came in from the Troutdale Tower and they reported a column of smoke in this direction west of the airport. Arriving, crews found heavy fire involvement in a row of three story condo units. So we had initially two and then later three and four units involved in the fire. Initial report was possibly a plane crashed into those apartments. We've been able to confirm that that has happened. We've been in touch with, uh, U TSB out of the Seattle office and they'll be sending a team to the scene. Our fire investigators are there now, they're working hand in hand with Multnomah County Sheriff's office to rope off the area, protecting the evidence that may be found. Additionally, we have two transmission lines from Portland General Electric that are down. Um, nobody has confirmed that they were struck by the aircraft. That's an assumption that's being made. We just don't have that information confirmed yet. Initial report says that there were two occupants on the airplane and we're missing one residential occupant from the condo unit. And how long did it take you to get things under control and contain the uh the fire went to five alarms. So, uh generally speaking, that's uh each alarm has four engines in a ladder truck. So when we go to five alarms, we're talking almost 20 engines, ladder trucks, five or six chief officers and a bunch of ancillary equipment, uh rehab units and air supply and those type of things. So, um it's warm today. It's not as hot as it's going to be later this afternoon. But when you're wearing roughly 75 pounds of fire protective clothing that's made to insulate you from the weather, it gets very hot, very fast. So a lot of the crews we needed were so we can rest in rehab, not overheat our firefighters and make sure we have enough resources for them on the scene today. I may have said four. Initially, there was two, it spread to 34, I think now it's going to displace five families. It may be 1/6 1. They're going to look that over and see whether or not they can return to their residence this evening. And one person even listen to what the express outside of that we talk about the beach. Uh Two people have been treated by AM R medics. There's two of those on the scene along with AM R supervisor. Uh The first one was uh treated and refused transport and the second one was just being looked at the light office. Here's a visit with you. So I don't know the outcome. And how is fighting a plane crash fire from different from a typical fire, generally a residential fire in a three story condo unit for us is you go in the front door, you go up the stairs and you put out the fire wherever it's at. This particular fire was well involved. There was a collapse from the initial airplane strike so you couldn't get into the units. So a lot of it was the units on either side, we were able to attack from inside. But the unit where the most impact was, was a defensive fire for that unit from outside. Overhead water from the pets too. No information on pets. I got the fuel too from the plane also, uh, the fuel. So when I, by the time I arrived, it didn't look like there was a fuel fed fire, but certainly on the initial dispatch and the smoke column rising from the, from the unit looked like there could have been hydrocarbons involved and how important is it to have support from surrounding departments during situations like this? Well, certainly Gresham is ok for taking care of Gresham for one alarm. Beyond that, we need our, our partners and throughout the region, whether it's uh Plakias or Falter Valley, Portland or Gresham, we use automatic vehicle locator so we get the closest appropriate piece no matter whose fire it is or where it's located. So there were Portland crews on the initial dispatch and then by the time we went to the second alarm, we had committed everybody from Gresham. So more from Portland, we have an engine for Vancouver here. I've been threshing fire 22 years now, first time we've had a Vancouver engine into one of the cities. Now, it's important to note that we're in the city of Fairview. The Gresham Fire department provides fire protection through contract with Fair. I don't have that information available to me. Uh Engine 74 is right over there. So it couldn't have been very long. Do we know that I do not have that information? Somebody might, I don't know. Is there any sort of warning that this plane was in trouble or anything of that nature? The initial report from Troutdale Tower was there was no Mayday, no call for emergency meeting. We did not. Did you have to call it where they, to my knowledge, we have not found any of the victims and when power lines are hit, how does that change the scenery for you guys as firefighters? Fortunately, for us, the lines that may have been hit, the lines that are down are in the right of way for big transmission lines. So there's not like there's residential businesses underneath them. Now, it did spark a little bit of a wildfire from grass fire in that area when they fell. But it wasn't really a big threat to firefighters or the community because that's an isolated area to be ok. No, firefighters were injured at all. No reported firefighter injuries. All right. Thanks. Chief.